Time for vendors to get their house in order
tribune242 editorial
"SHOWBOATING" on the sidelines is what government is calling the position taken by the PLP in the case of the nine jailed straw vendors in New York. We see it as the PLP playing its usual game -- taking advantage of the ignorance of less fortunate people.
The position is that nine straw vendors went to New York in September on a shopping spree. According to their own admissions they knowingly purchased fake designer goods -- brand named bags and jewellery -- for resale at their market stalls on Bay Street. As they waited at the airport in New York to board their return flight to Nassau, loaded down with shopping bags of illegal goods, they were arrested and charged in a Manhattan court with conspiracy to defraud the US by trafficking in counterfeit merchandise.
Because Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette, who is also Minister of Foreign Affairs, made a public statement to the effect that vendors at home should take note of what had happened to their colleagues and govern themselves accordingly, the PLP are trying to infer that the government had abandoned the straw vendors. They had no intention of helping them, said the PLP, until the PLP got on their case and embarrassed them into action.
This, of course, is not true. The government was not embarrassed by the PLP's senseless haranguing. On learning of the vendors arrest all agents of government moved in to provide whatever help they could. Mr Symonette received a daily report from the Bahamas Consulate in New York, which provided assistance to the vendors and kept their families informed.
Almost immediately the Ministries of Education and Labour and Social Development assisted the families and children left behind in Nassau. The government also engaged legal counsel to represent the vendors.
But apparently that is not enough. The PLP want the government to help them with their bail, find suitable accommodation for them until they go to trial, resolve the bond issue "and see whether -- since this is a government-to-government issue -- to see if we can't through the attorneys seek to get the charges dropped."
Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell and Fort Charlotte MP Alfred Sears, both lawyers, should know that once a matter gets before the courts it ceases to be a government-to-government issue. Nobody can interfere with the judicial process. No one can do it in the Bahamas, nor can anyone do it in New York. It is, therefore, wrong to take advantage of less educated people, and make them believe that somehow governments can negotiate with the courts. Should offenders facing our courts in Nassau and jail time in HM Prison expect the same consideration from their government? These PLP lawyers should know that the symbol of a blindfolded justice sends out the message that all persons are equal before the Law and each gets equal justice -- regardless of who they happen to be. The most the Bahamas government can do is to ensure that the vendors have good legal representation and are judged fairly. The vendors cannot expect more than that - and it is wrong of the PLP to fool them into believing otherwise. The law cannot be bent to accommodate them. As for those still in Nassau, who want to find wiggle room to continue the illicit trade, they should take Mr Symonette's wise advise and get their stalls in order before the police have to come and do it for them.
The PLP should be the last to be crowing when we discover that when the matter of the counterfeit goods should have been settled in 2006, a "senior government official" in the PLP administration instructed a "senior police official" not to raid the vendors' stalls, but let them continue to sell their goods. These instructions came after police raided the warehouse on East Street, allegedly the supplier of the counterfeit goods, and were prepared to move onto the straw market to put a stop to the illegal trade there.
The police's lack of action in stamping out the trade in 2006 led the US government to unfairly conclude that Bahamian police officers were "complicit" in the straw market's counterfeit commerce. From the information we now have the police turned a blind eye to what was going on in the market on instructions in 2006 from a "senior government official."
This is why we find the holier-than-thou position now being taken by the PLP not only farcical, but insincere. If they are so concerned, why don't some of them take up a collection and help pay the bail for the ladies who are now in distress?
They should also go to the straw market and -- despite the famous remarks of one reverend gentlemen that "principles don't put food on the table" -- instruct the ladies that the continued illegal sale of counterfeit goods that once put food on their tables, will now land them in jail.
We recommend to the straw vendors that instead of being lulled into a stupor by PLP words excusing their actions, they should heed the sound advice of Mr Symonette, who said: "As a result of these charges, I highly recommend that Bahamians be guided accordingly."
In other words quickly clean up your act and abide by the law.
October 06, 2010
tribune242 editorial
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.